How Far Are You Willing To Go To Protect Your Child’s Honor?

Sil Mazzini threw a birthday party for her 6-year-old son, only to have none of the invitees show up. She was devastated by the no-shows and embarrassed for her son.

The disdain that Mazzini felt burned within her being so fiercely she took a photo of her son sitting in front of 28 plates of deserted pizza and posted it on Facebook.

Needless to say, the post went viral, and now she’s working double overtime to escape the attention both she and her son are currently experiencing.

How far is too far when protecting your child’s honor?

When Mazzini posted the photo of her child sitting alone in front of 28 plates of pizza, she no doubted did so because of her anger at those parents who abandoned her son on his day of celebration.

Mazzini admitted that her son did not seem to mind — he was so busy being a 6-year-old boy who was excited about the video games that surrounded him. The problem was that Mazzini could not handle the way she felt her son was being treated.

When our children are hurt by others, it makes sense that we stand up for them. When our children feel pain, it also makes sense that we do all that we can to erase that pain. The only problem is we do these things for the sake of our children, not thinking about the consequences that might follow.

Pain is inevitable and so is life

Pain is a part of life and our children are going to feel it sooner or later. When people hurt our children, we should step in and do all that we can to protect their feelings. However, we can only do so much.

Mazzini did not post the photo to protect her child…she did it to protect her ego. She personally invited everyone to come to her son’s birthday party, and when they failed to show, she was offended. She posted the picture to shame those who would see it—not thinking about how his friends might react to him once he got to school the next day. Sometimes in our effort as parents to protect our children, we actually make situations much worse than they have to be.

It is not a bad thing to allow life to take its course, sometimes. When our children’s feelings are hurt by their friends, all we can do is be there to hold them through the pain. We can’t act on the situation because we will only take away our children’s ability to handle these types of situations on their own. Stand back, despite the desire to stand up, and allow your child the room they need to grow. Even if pain is part of the growing process.

About Audra L.

Audra L. is an author, columnist and community activist who's dedicated to finding truth through research and effective communication. She received her degree in Public Policy and teaches Community Development, Public Speaking and Communications Law to youth throughout the nation. She is the recipient of over 23 awards and honors for her commitment to community outreach initiatives.

11 comments

Let’s not get TOO busy, condemning Ms. (Mrs.?) Mazzini.
So her son did not SEEM to be bothered by the fact, that no one showed up to his birthday party. He may very well NOT have been bothered by that.
HOWEVER… What the other parents did, is BEYOND disrespectful and rude. Even as “just an uncle”, I am VERY aware of the time, effort, and expense involved in preparing a party like this… Be it at home, or at some establishment.
The parents of each child invited, SHOULD have called or otherwise gotten in contact with Ms. Mazzini, and let her know that their child would not be attending. Your article makes NO mention, of whether that happened – or NOT. Your article DOES infer, however, that such an “RSVP to not attend” DID. NOT. OCCUR.
The tone of your article, furthermore, implies that the rude and disrespectful behavior of the other parents, is “completely normal and ACCEPTABLE”, and that anyone who is offended by such behavior, is “morally wrong”.
I could not DISAGREE more.
Yes; “pain” is an unavoidable part of life, be it physical or emotional. That, however, should “cut both ways”. People who engage in rude or disrespectful behavior, should also be subject to the emotional pain and embarrassment, of having their bad behavior exposed and criticized.
Yes, we SHOULD teach our children that disappointments in life “happen”. By the same token, we should ALSO teach them that acting rudely and disrespectfully, SHOULD come with negative consequences.
The tone of YOUR article, condemns the aggrieved party, and NOT the people who committed the offense.

I think the mother of this child who posted this birthday party online made a huge mistake. It was like the child was hurt twice for an event that should have been joyful. If a parent rsvps that their child is coming to a party they shiuld show up or show some common sense and call in an extreme case of sickness. I feel bad for this child since he was the one who really lost out. She should of made good on this and done something fun with her kid to compensate for all this to make it a good memory.

How do you know the intimate reason she posted it!?? I would do it as well to show the effects of thoughtless people. The only thing she could have done to keep this from happening, was to send out invitations and ask for RSVPs. That might have saved her or her child any hurt or embarrassment. Any judgment from your part needs to stay at home!

If I was the parent , I would have requested an explanation. Is my child rude? Is he a bully? Are people mad at me? Did the invitations come too late? I would be looking for answers. Whether I got the answers or not, Iwould sit down with my son to talk about people in a positive way. We would talk about the “best of times and
the worst of times”. Life is not always predictable but be
prepared to soothe hurt feelings.

It seems strange – even unbelievable – that of 28 children invited to her son’s birthday party, NONE of them showed up.

Was there a problem/error with sending the invitations and that prevented them from actually going out? Is there some reason that neighbors find this mother and/or her son so toxic that no one wanted to attend?

Is this story as being posted by the mother even true in the first place? Sorry, but it’s hard to believe that not even one or two other children out of 28 attended because all the other parents were simply being thoughtless.

Further investigation and confirmation are needed before we make any judgments

Good for the mother! She put time , money and effort into making this a fun day for her son only to have rude and disrespectful people not show up. Sure….this is a life lesson for her son….he will learn and grow from it. But, Mom took a loss on this too!

When she posted it on facebook, what happened. 28 people could have apologized, some of them might not have gotten the invite (which I don’t believe) or some of them might have been sick. The 28 mamas would have been annoyed if someone did this to them, but more likely it appears that 28 people disrespected the mother, not the kid. Shame on our society being so aggressively stupid. and shame on you for not telling us what happened, this is half a story.

Twenty eight plates? If that represents 28 no shows (did anyone show, including family members?), there’s something else going on here. Who invites 28 people to a party for a 6 year old, unless it’s a case of “invite the whole class or don’t invite anybody from your class”? If that is the situation, then the school should also establish expectations regarding RSVPs as part of the policy. Better yet, the school should butt out and let you choose who you invite. If this is a case of mandatory inclusivity, it backfired. And we don’t know the socio-economic status of the invitees. Gifts are not cheap to buy, and you don’t show up to a birthday party empty-handed. There’s a lot of background detail missing in this story.